District 210 Board of Education selects superintendent search firm

Lemont High School seal

At its meeting on March 18, 2024, the Lemont High School District 210 Board of Education selected Pezanoski Consulting as the firm to lead the search for the district’s next superintendent. Pezanoski Consulting will coordinate the search for the successor to current District 210 Superintendent Dr. Mary Ticknor, who has announced she will retire at the conclusion of the 2024-25 school year.

District 210’s Board of Education received proposals from three leading superintendent search firms, including Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates; Illinois Association of School Boards; and Pezanoski Consulting. All three firms made formal presentations and submitted written proposals, which included their financial bids for the project. 

“Selecting a superintendent is a vital task for a school board,” District 210 Board of Education President Kurt Korte said. “The search is an involved process and requires the proper amount of time. This not only includes recruiting the candidates who are best qualified for the position, but also verifying backgrounds, conducting multiple interviews with candidates, and ensuring all legal, community, and Board of Education requirements are met.”

Because the search process is time-consuming and complicated, it is common practice for a school board to retain the services of a superintendent search firm. District 210’s Board of Education utilized a search firm when it hired Superintendent Dr. Sandy Doebert prior to the 2002-03 school year, and again when Dr. Ticknor was hired prior to the 2012-13 school year.

Recruitment is an important and necessary part of finding the best superintendent for a school district. Pezanoski Consulting will use its network to attract the largest pool of candidates from which District 210’s Board of Education ultimately will choose. That pool of qualified candidates will be much larger than it would be if the position were posted only on websites and newspapers.

District 210’s Board of Education will team with Pezanoski Consulting to develop a timeline for the search process, which likely will include gathering input from the school’s faculty, staff, administration and Board of Education, as well as the communities Lemont High School serves. District 210’s Board of Education expects to name its next superintendent early in 2025.